‘Civilians were slain in their beds’: disorder and violence dominate after taking of El Fasher
The volunteer nurse Nawal Khalil had been volunteering as a nurse for the past three years at El Fasher South hospital as the city became seized last Sunday by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). She was occupied with patient care, among them an older female patient requiring a blood transfusion, as the assault commenced.
“They killed six wounded soldiers along with civilians in their beds – among them female victims,” she says. “I am unaware of the fate to my other patients. I needed to escape after they raided the medical facility.”
The 27-year-old Khalil, was hit by a bullet in her right foot and thigh as RSF fighters took control of the closeby army headquarters. She fled the city and traveled on foot for one day, hurt and lacking sustenance, to arrive at Garney town. “Along the route, they took my phone and cash,” she describes. “I possessed nothing remaining.”
Over a thousand individuals – including women and children – journeyed by walking for 48 hours to arrive at Tawila town located in northern Darfur after running from El Fasher, which fell under control following an 18-month blockade.
This settlement, about 34 miles (55km) west away from El Fasher, is governed by by the SLA faction under Abdul Wahid Mohamed al-Nur's leadership.
This past Tuesday, the allied Joint Forces – who are allied with Sudan’s army – charged the RSF with murdering over 2,000 civilians since the fall of the city. The UN reported there were videos showing “dozens of unarmed men who were shot or found dead, with RSF militiamen around them.”
Background Context
Hostilities commenced within Khartoum on 15 April 2023 as an escalating power struggle between the two main factions of the military regime finally turned deadly.
Among the combatants are the Sudanese armed forces, that stay mostly faithful towards General al-Burhan, the de facto head of state. Opposing him exist the irregular troops of the RSF paramilitary group, a collection of militias who follow the former warlord General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti.
The RSF was initially founded by the previous authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir himself as a pro-Arab counterinsurgency force named the Janjaweed, that rapidly became associated with widespread atrocities. In 2013, Bashir reformed the faction into the RSF, sending them to suppress a fresh rebellion within South Darfur.
The conflict has plunged Sudan into among the most severe humanitarian crises in modern times, as per UN representatives. It has generated the planet's biggest displacement catastrophe, forcing more than 10 million persons within the country and 4 million who have fled to bordering states, creating increasing strain upon Chad and South Sudan.
Current Situation Updates
Per observer reports, many additional civilians stay confined by RSF forces and partner militias in Garney, southwest from El Fasher. Several are previous army members from Sudan's armed forces, the Joint Forces and other militant organizations that had been fighting alongside the army. They are reportedly being held since they cannot pay ransom requests between five and ten million Sudanese pounds (£6,000 to £12,000), according to survivors who made it to Tawila. Those unable to pay remain imprisoned for several days, and occasionally released only after developing critical health conditions.
The SLA-AW has reportedly allowed army soldiers running from El Fasher to enter Tawila provided they give up their weapons.
The individual Adam Yagoub, aged 28, a chauffeur from Sennar within central Sudan, narrowly escaped being killed following his capture by three armed men mounted on camels near Garney.
“They planned to decapitate me with a knife,” he informs, displaying his arm, which one militant assaulted with the stock of a Kalashnikov. “Then one of them recognised me – his sibling had collaborated with me – and pleaded with them to spare me. We were 18 people who left El Fasher together, yet merely eight reached Tawila. I think the others are dead.”
Yagoub says he saw 22 bodies near what he called a deceptive well employed by the RSF and partner armed groups along the Garney-Tawila route. “It’s a trap,” he comments. “Individuals travel all day lacking water, and when they get to it, the militias are waiting. They killed 22 men there and took the bodies away to obscure them.”
An additional nurse who ran from South El Fasher hospital after the attack on Sunday said RSF fighters entered using one doorway and opened fire on patients in the ER section, killing at least eight. “We escaped through a different gate, yet they assaulted my head with a firearm,” he recounts.
In a video statement on Wednesday, the head of the RSF, General Dagalo, referred to as Hemedti, said that any soldier or official who breached the rights of any person” would be held accountable.
Many of those who escaped El Fasher spent hours hiding near the army’s artillery unit prior to escaping westward under darkness's protection. Families already uprooted from the city’s Abu Shouk camp were forced to move again, finding shelter in Daraja Oula area before finally moving toward Tawila.
Individuals seized by the RSF within Garney reportedly received {water mixed with flour|flour
